Once again one hears of a damning report at national level into wrongdoing - in this case barrister John Smyth. What makes it worse is that eminent contemporaries knew that he was a paedophile as long ago as 2013 and did nothing effective to stop him, and he was allowed to go to Africa where he continued damaging young boys until he died, in all some 130. This sort of cover-up seems all too prevalent in our society.

Surely we should be trying to eliminate the sort of situations which potentially tempt people to practice paedophile behaviour.

Many boys' boarding schools had a practice called “fagging” which paired young boys with older ones, to help each other, creating an unequal power relationship at a time when the older boys were exploring their awakening sexual feelings. I am sure that many of these relationships were beneficial, but inevitably some were dubious and difficult for a housemaster to detect.

For years these schools have trained people who have gone on to be eminent in their occupations, and even our leaders.

After school, many opportunities for paedophile practices arose in valuable summer camps for boys, where parents trusted their organisations and were grateful that people volunteered to run them. However, in both cases, young boys could be too terrified to complain about their mistreatment. This fagging system is unnecessary for a boy's development and this system should be abolished.

However, it is very important that teenagers should be taught that relationships with girls and women should be built on a cooperative basis, not a control basis which is outdated in our 21st century.

Instead of listening and discussion to solve problems, control leads to resentment, arguments that worsen and lead to violence against women and girls which now seems like a modern disease, leading to the break up of families and danger to children.

This report should lead to the abandonment of double standards in the way we live.

Andrew Rutter,

Quaker,

St Johns Road,

Winchester

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